Archive for November 28, 2012

CNN had substantial growth in November increasing +59% in total day/total viewers (652k vs. 409k) and +98% in total day/demo 25-54 (241k vs. 122k) vs. a year ago. In weekday primetime, delivery increased by even more robust margins –+72% in total viewers (1.254m vs. 729k) and +131% in the key demo 25-54 (494k vs. 214k). This represents CNN’s best monthly performance in total day in over a year among both total viewers and in the key demo 25-54 and in M-F prime among 25-54.

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien had its best month since launching in January, growing double digits from a year ago. In total viewers the morning program was up +36% (393k vs. 290k) and increased 44% in the key demo 25-54 (164k vs. 114k).

Erin Burnett Outfront also had its strongest month since launch (October 2011) in both total viewers and in the key demo. The show had the most growth in total viewers compared to the competition, increasing +52% (774k vs. 510k) and also increased +81% in the key demo (254k vs. 140k).

“Hardball with Chris Matthews” at 5 p.m. Has Best Month in the Show’s 12 Year History

NEW YORK – November 28, 2012 –MSNBC had another record-breaking ratings month in November, posting significant year-over-year gains and hitting all-time highs for programs including “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “PoliticsNation,” “The Ed Show” and “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” according to data from Nielsen. “Morning Joe” and “The Rachel Maddow Show” had their best A25-54 delivery since November 2008.

“Martin Bashir” at 4 p.m. and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” at 10 p.m. posted the best total viewer delivery in the history of MSNBC in those time periods.

For the second month in a row, MSNBC Weekday Primetime (M-F 8-11 p.m.) ranked among the Top Ten cable networks in total viewers (#10, #8 with kids networks excluded). MSNBC also had the biggest year-over-year gain among any cable network in the top 30 for the month. In November, MSNBC was the #2 cable news network in weekday primetime averaging 525,000 A25-54 and 1.6 million total viewers. Compared to Nov. 2011, MSNBC Weekday Prime was up 131% with A25-54 and 82% among total viewers. MSNBC ranked #1 among African American P2+ for the 34 th consecutive month.

Was Ricks being deliberately provocative? Perhaps he was, for controversy sells books. And maybe his criticism was overstated. But the fact remains that he was invited as a guest, was asked about the Libya attack, and responded in a way that made Fox’s relentless coverage of the controversy part of the story. And that was deemed unacceptable.

Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice president, told me that Ricks’s conduct “felt like a stunt…That was just bush league, especially for a veteran reporter.” Ricks wasn’t answering the anchor’s question, says Clemente, and Scott, feeling “offended,” decided that “I’m not going to give this guy any more airtime.”

What’s more, Clemente says, Ricks “apologized” to a Fox staffer on the way out.

Ricks denies this, saying he told the staffer—who accused him of being rude—that he “might have been a bit snappish” because he was tired from his book tour. “This was in no way an apology,” Ricks told me, “but rather an explanation of why I jumped a bit when the anchor began the segment with the assertion that pressure on the White House was building—which it most clearly was not.”

As for the interview itself, “I was not picking a fight with Fox. I was answering their questions.”

Bull. Ricks absolutely was picking a fight with FNC the same way that John Ziegler tried to pick a fight with Contessa Brewer and got booted off MSNBC. If you attack a network you are appearing on with that kind of rhetoric, you should expect to get yanked off the air. One could still make the point Ricks was trying to make without resorting to the language Ricks was using…language which left FNC with no choice but to drop him like a hot potato.

The only question I have is whether Ricks has a documented history of taking jabs at FNC. If he has, then FNC’s bookers share some of the blame for bringing him on knowing what could happen.

Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein pens a smart piece on Jeff Zucker. I disagree with parts of it but Wallenstein raises some interesting points nobody else has raised…

CNN needs what Zucker was able to do at NBC’s “Today” at an earlier stage in his career: to shake up established practices and find a new groove. Rare is the executive who has significant experience across both news and entertainment, along with a healthy respect for how digital is transforming both. Zucker fits that profile to a T.

The radical rethink of established practices Zucker has to undertake at CNN is not unlike what Disney called on Rich Ross to attempt at Walt Disney Studios, and we all know how that turned out. But the moral of that story isn’t that you don’t attempt change because it is too tough to pull off. The lesson is that it takes someone who’s already proven he knows how to attempt a bold turnaround to succeed when there’s such a high degree of difficulty.

Imagine the hooting and hollering that would occur if CNN dared to migrate the kind of unscripted programming it will be trying on weekends with Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock to time periods more accustomed to traditional news. It’s going to take someone like Zucker to make that happen.

And therein lies an interesting wrinkle in the Zucker comeback story: He’ll be knocking on the doors of the same talent agencies he alienated in the past in search of other talent to reignite CNN. But that won’t be a problem. He may make a lot of people in this town see red, but his money is still green.

If anything, his failures at NBCU are an asset in that Zucker has something to prove. He knows there are naysayers who want him to fail. And he probably craves an opportunity for redemption, something his current lower-profile gig as exec producer of Katie Couric’s syndie talkshow wasn’t going to deliver.